For those of you unfamiliar to Etsy.com it is a buying/selling site for handcrafters and artisans to sell their goods online. I have purchased (probably not quite as literally as my friend Jen) tons of yarn, stitch markers, knit kits, bags, purses, jewelry, shirts, art, (I'm sure more) I did appreciate being able to use pay pal and Etsy, because while receiving goods directly form the artist, I liked having a fallback to go to "just in case" Feedback can be left on Etsy- and I try to leave as honest a feedback as possible, to help the good artists make future sales, and to give other buyers a heads up if there were difficulties. Feedback of each seller is available to look at before you make a purchasing decision.
Etsy suddenly, AND WITHOUT WARNING TO BUYERS, decided to make public all buyers records. A buyer can be searched by REAL NAME, and all the purchases the buyers have made are also searchable. Apparently, this information may even show up on Google!! I don't want the world to be able to see what I have purchased! I am not currently looking for a job (but may be in September) but for those people looking for a job (and in this economy that is a lot of people) many employers are using Google and facebook searches, do I want prospective employers to form an impression of me based on my purchases? Do I want people to know my sex toy preferences? NOT!
The article about this is here.
The only reason I have not already deleted my account is that I have purchased items not ready to ship yet, and I am waiting to see if that would be overreacting. At the bottom of the article linked above are directions to change your privacy settings, so only you and the seller in question can see your records. I have changed both my password and my privacy settings.
Etsy's "reason" is to make their site more like a social networking site. I am not going to Etsy to make friends or socialize. I could go to facebook or any number of networking sited if I wanted to do that. the only social site I visit or intend to visit is Ravelry, and if they suddenly made public my real name and any purchases I made through their store I would create a new account with not my real name and never make another purchase.
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I've gotten rid of the word verification for posting comments. To tell the truth, I have trouble reading the new stuff they are using. Feel free to disagree, but spammy or obnoxious comments will not go up.